Hey friends! Copying this over from the UChi forums…
Can someone shed light on my chances for UChicago if I apply ED1?
ACT: 36 (36E, 35M, 36R, 36S)
GPA: ~3.65 (this is pretty low, and definitely the weakest point of my app. The average GPA admit for students to UChi at my school is 3.8, though mostly everyone applies RD (I don’t know anyone else applying ED1; though a few are EA’ing (to econ or cs lol)). Last year, one person applied ED1 (he got in), and we also had 4 accepted RD. It’s funny bc UChi doesn’t necessarily take the top academic students from my school, but rather all the people who got accepted were fit very well for the UChi curriculum and experience. According to naviance, there have also been people accepted with lower stats than mine (~3.2 GPA is the lowest, but I reckon that’s an athlete); one of my friends from a neighboring school (Same rigor) was accepted ED to UChi last year with a 3.6. I’ve also taken the most rigorous courseload possible, and I took some high-level math & science courses I wasn’t ready for (I go to a very big STEM-dominant high school in NJ) I also got a C in my Physics C class last year. All of my B’s are in Math & Science classes (no humanities); I’m pursuing a humanities major.
School doesn’t rank, but if I had to guess I think I would be in the ~30-40%
SAT II: 800 M2, 800 Lit, 800 Physics
AP Scores: Nat. AP Scholar; 5’s on Calc BC, Chem, USH, Lit, Lang, CS A, Spanish, Physics 1; 4 on Studio Art
Senior Year Course Load: AP Gov, AP Stats, AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Bio, Art (I’m also taking courses in AP Spanish (couldn’t fit in my schedule) and Native American history at local community colleges)
EC’s: I think these are truly where I stand out; I dedicated a lot of time to my EC’s and they truly define what I’m interested in (For the sake of privacy, I’m keeping it vague, but hopefully you get the gist!)
-Female Empowerment (Advocating bills in Congress, lobbying on Capitol Hill, etc)–pretty politically involved and grassroots-oriented
-Poetry (founded a curriculum for adolescents with speech impediments, manage an international magazine for an audience of over 4000+)–working alongside college students and definitely a niche within my community
-Writing Camp (Kenyon)/my creative writing has been published in ~40-50 independent journals
-Iraq-US Relations Ambassador: participated in a program meant to increase engagement between youth in US and middle east; I’ve worked with and debated issues with youth from 11 Iraq provinces
-Intern for Congressman: super grassroots-based, I’ve canvassed ~400+ homes and focused on increasing minority voice
-Science Bowl–definitely a stray-away from the rest of my humanities-oriented EC’s, but i’ve been doing it since the 6th grade and it’s definitely a family to me: our team’s best placing has been pretty good (top few at the state level), but no nationals
-Art: I design on an international magazine to an audience of 400+, and I’ve also hosted 50+ art activities within my community (including: mural painting, local art festival, etc)
-Business Intern: I did some designing
-Quiz Bowl/History Bowl; I focus on women’s rights and other minority movements (lit/hist based)
-Regional Student Council VP (this is not a school based activity, but also very leadership-y/political): I’ve represented my entire area (a few thousand students) and met with 10+ school boards, developed education proposals to the state board (Representing ~6mil students), and raised $20,000 for education equity
My awards lie mostly in Writing/Science Bowl, though I got published by a pretty prestigious history journal (they send a lot of students to top schools). Most of these awards are at the national level, but they’re not super known (not like national Science Olympiads or anything)
My essays are hopefully also going to be amazing (I’m still going through drafts of them); I think I fit in very well with the academic quirkiness of UChi, and their obscure, creative writing prompts definitely solidified my interests in UChi. So, I think my essays will show that I’m a really good fit for UChi. My teacher/counselor recs will probably target that as well: one of my teachers actually recommended UChi to me as a place I would fit in very well at, and several of his students got into UChi RD last year (3 of the 5 accepted in total); the other one wrote a rec for the student accepted ED. Both my teachers are in the humanities (do you see a trend? haha), and I visit them often so the recs will probably be great; I also am very close with my counselor, so I’m not too worried about my recs.
I’m interested in pursuing Law, Letters, and Society as well as some field of English; at my high school, I’m a huge humanities person in a very STEM-dominanted environment (I’m the only person I know pursuing a humanities field for college lol, most everyone is going into CS/Business); UChi’s humanities core really drew me in, and the “life of the mind” intellectual experience is pretty much everything I’ve wanted in a college.
I won’t be applying for financial aid (though UChi is need blind); I’m not a URM…is there anything I’m forgetting? What are ways I can improve my app (beyond essays)? Demonstrated Interest?
Please chance me! Although UChicago is super hard to get into, I’m definitely applying there ED bc after researching colleges for a while, UChi’s culture definitely sounds like somewhere I can both thrive and fit in with. Thank you!
Other schools on my list: UMich, Vassar, Yale, CMU, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, etc
Thanks everyone!
